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The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 27, 2001.- 7A

Bush to announce air
security plan today

Iran won't aid U.S.
in military action

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House
reviewed a plan yesterday to bring airport security
workers under greater federal supervision and to
better protect planes against hijacking. President
Bush said he hoped to "convince the American
public it is safe to fly."
Bush said he would be announcing some "confi-
dence boosting measures and some concrete pro-
posals" in a trip to Chicago today. He predicted
Congress would act on them quickly and said,
"One of the keys to economic recovery is going to
be the vitality of the airline industry."
Fifteen days after terrorists hijacked jetliners, the
administration worked to restore public confidence
in the air travel system. Among the proposals gain-
ing steam was one to put more armed marshals
aboard flights.
But Bush seemed cool to a proposal by a pilots
union to arm pilots. Speaking to reporters, he said,
'SUIT TEE
Continued from Page 1A Continu
Royster Harper was called as a witness guards
for the prosecution and testified that she crowd.
never authorized Martin to do anything embassy
with the artifacts. the Sovi
But Washington said he didn't believe Smok
Harper's testimony. "Every juror I about fi
talked to said they didn't believe her embassy
story," he said. "Harper was covering for used har
the University." cular U.
Martin said in her five years with the Taliban
University she had made purchases sim- the prote
ilar to the ones in question. "All of a' "It's j
sudden I was called a thief," Martin this is
said. "They provided me with a listing spokesn
of transactions and dates ... honey- attack
baked hams that I purchased for a feast, change,
dinners with alumni ... petty things." dent has
Last October when police seized United S
everything in her apartment, Martin The f
decided to hire an attorney. "I knew they were be
were building a case, but I didn't know cy to vi
what they were going to prosecute me - the Detr
for," Martin said. "I still thought I had a statemer
chance to get my job back going into Huss
the conference; she said. "I was strug- appeare
gling, working at Hollywood Video." yesterda
Martin said because of the University woman
Department of Public Safety's seizure of Detroit.
her belongings, she was unable to pro- Also
vide documentation to prove her inno- and Ak
cence. Washington said Martin will and Hate
definitely seek monetary compensation.' both of
r "Maybe someday the University will Some
learn to treat employees of color with false pe
respect," Washington said. Pennsyl

"There may be better ways to do it than that, but
I'm open for any suggestion."'
Officials familiar with the plan said late yester-
day that Bush's new security steps would include a
public-private partnership under which airport
security workers, while still working for private
companies, would come under greater supervision
of the federal government.
A portion of this would include better screening
of the security employees themselves when they
are hired as well, said the officials, describing the
proposals on condition of anonymity. The govern-
ment also would also would have a temporary pres-
ence at airport security checkpoints, they said.
A White House official said the question of
whether the federal government should take over air-
port security is not likely to be resolved with Bush's
speech today. The government will probably play a
"partnership" role with security companies.

'Ihe Washington Post
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Iran's top
political and religious leader yesterday
said his country would not join a U.S.-
led coalition against terrorism, dousing
hopes that Iran's recent condemnations
of terrorist attacks in the United States
might lead to warming relations
between the longtime antagonists.
Sincere messages of sympathy and
denunciations of terrorism from Iranian
officials following the Sept. 11 attacks
in New York and Washington led some
analysts to suggest that there was poten-
tial for repairing relations that have been
hostile for more than two decades, since
the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
But in a speech excerpted on national
television, Iran's supreme leader, Aya-
tollah Ali Khamenei, said that the Unit-
ed States was "not sincere enough to
lead an international move against ter-
rorism" because of its continued support
for Israel. He added, "Iran will provide
no help to America and its allies...in an
attack on suffering, neighboring, Mus-
lim Afghanistan."

The United States is attempting to
build a broad international coalition that
would support strikes against an alleged
terrorist organization headed by fugitive
Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, the i
leading suspect in terrorist attacks twoy'
weeks ago that left about 6,500 people 3
dead or missing. Bin Laden is being :
sheltered in Afghanistan by the Taliban,
a radical Islamic militia that controls k
most of the country.
Reflecting heightened concerns
about security, the United States yes-
terday closed its consulate in Pak-
istan's second-largest city, Lahore.
Families of U.S. diplomats posted in
Pakistan have already left the country.
In Pakistan's business capital and
largest city, Karachi, a demonstration by
about 15,000 people in favor of joining a
U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition was dis-
rupted by a grenade attack that injured at
least 12 people. Most recent demonstra- r
tions in Pakistan have been called by
Islamic groups to protest the country's
decision to help the United States track M
down bin Laden and persuade the Tal-
iban to hand him over for prosecution.

9
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AP PHOTO
A police cruiser makes its rounds on the tarmac at Cleveland's
Hopkins Airport yesterday as part of a security sweep.

RROR
ed from Page IA
who were no match for the
The last U.S. diplomats left the
in January 1989 just ahead of
et withdrawal from Afghanistan.
ke billowed into the sky after
ve vehicles were set afire in the
y compound, and several men
immers to remove the large cir-
S. seal above the front entrance.
authorities eventually dispersed
esters and extinguished the fires.
ust another sign of the fact that
s serious," White House
man Ari Fleischer said of the
on the embassy. "It doesn't
anything about what the presi-
said or what the mission of the
States will be."
ive men arrested in Michigan
ing held on charges of conspira-
olate federal identity theft laws,
roit office of the FBI said in a
nt.
ain Al-Obaidi of Detroit
:d before a federal magistrate
ay, said Gina Balaya, a spokes-
for the U.S. Attorney's Office in
arrested were Samir Al Mazaal
eel Al-Aboudy, both of Detroit;
ef Al-Atabi and Arkan Alandon,
Dearborn, the FBI said.
of those arrested had obtained
ermits in Pittsburgh, where a
vania Department of Trans-

portation driver's license examiner pro-
vided permits to people who didn't take
required tests, had suspended licenses or
were otherwise not eligible, according
to court records.
In court papers, the FBI said a Middle
Eastern man named Abdul Mohamman,
known as "Ben," acted as a middleman
in the scheme, bringing in as many as
30 drivers who fraudulently obtained
commercial licenses to carry hazardous
materials. The FBI quoted the examiner,
identified in the affidavit only as CW-1,
as saying that he was introduced to
"Ben" about six years ago.
The examiner told the FBI he "issued
HAZMAT endorsements to these indi-
viduals at Bert's instruction without con-
ducting the required test."
"Ben paid between $50 and $100 per
individual by placing the money in
'brand-new' bills under CW-l's desk
calendar," said the FBI affidavit.
The concern about licenses to haul
chemicals first surfaced last week when
authorities arrested Nabil Al-Marabh, a
former Boston cab driver taken into cus-
tody in Chicago last week. Al-Marabh
holds a commercial driver's license and
is certified to transport hazardous mate-
rials, records show.
In El Salvador, national police direc-
tor Mauricio Sandoval said the FBI has
detained a Salvadoran man, Luis Mar-
tinez-Flores, who allegedly helped the
suspected terrorists obtain false identifi-
cation cards. Martinez-Flores "may
have moved" around "with the terrorists

in New York, Boston or Florida," San-
doval told a news conference.
The name Luis Martinez-Flores
turned up last week on a list of 21 peo-
ple whose financial records the FBI had
asked all U.S. banks to check. The 19
suspected hijackers were on the list,
along with Martinez-Flores and one
other person.
Martinez-Flores is apparently being
held by the U.S. Immigration and Natu-
ralization Service in Virginia as an ille-
gal immigrant, Sandoval said.
In Virginia, the government ihcreased
its pressure on a former airline food
worker whose name and phone number
were found in a car registered to one of
the terrorist hijackers, persuading a fed-
eral court to detain him without bail.
Prosecutors described Mohamed
Abdi of Virginia as an essential witness
and said "he may be more." Abdi's
lawyer insisted he knew nothing about
the Sept. 11 attacks.
. Another man, Herbert Villalobos,
charged with helping a hijacker get a
photo identification card, was also
denied bail by a federal magistrate in
Alexandria, Va., as prosecutors sought
to keep possible suspects jailed until it
could be determined whether they were
tied to the attacks.
Meanwhile, a federal prosecutor in
New York said Al-Badr Al-Hazmi, a
San Antonio radiologist detained for
close to two weeks after the Sept. 11
attacks and released Tuesday, never was
a subject of the investigation.


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INTERNET
Continued from Page IA
reduces the advantage "e-tailers" - or Internet
retailers - now have over businesses that are
forced to collect sales tax from their customers.
"Remote sellers have a 6 percent advantage over
those that have a physical presence in Michigan,"
said Richard Studley, senior vice president for gov-
ernment relations with the state Chamber of Com-
merce.
Rep. Leon Drolet (R-Clinton Twp.), one of the
most outspoken critics of the bill, disputed Stud-
ley's assertion that internet sites have any kind of
advantage over traditional, "brick and mortar"
stores.
"When you pay shipping and handling (to an
Internet site), they are often greater than six per-
cent," he said, adding that smaller stores face more
competition from mega stores than they do from
online retailers.
"Bob's Hardware Store is facing intense compe-
tition from Home Depot," Drolet said.
According to the non-partisan House Fiscal
Agency, $200 million in annual revenue owed in

"Bob's Hardware Store is facing intense competition
from Home Depot"
- Rep. Leon Drolet
R-Clinton Twp.

l

II

sales tax from Internet sales would be recovered by
this new consortium for collecting taxes.
Jacques Habra, chief executive officer of Ann
Arbor-based Web Elite, an e-business development
and consulting company, said the funds the state
could potentially recoup from the consortium
could go to improving the Internet's infrastructure.
"It'll go to creating faster (telecommunications)
lines, more reliable lines and more secure lines,"
he said.
But fifth-year Rackham student Charles Good-
man, chair of the University's chapter of College
Libertarians, said the bill is another example of
ever-encroaching government.
Goodman said he is opposed to sales taxes in
general, and the consortium would help collect
sales taxes.

"Sales tax is regressive. It falls more heavily on
poor people than rich people, proportional to their
income," he said.
Studley dismissed the idea offered by the pro-
posal's opponents that by Michigan's participation
in the program, e-business will stay out of Michi-
gan, preferring to base their operations in states
that do not have the mechanisms to collect Internet
taxes.
He predicted that 19 states, in addition to the 19
that have already signed on, will join the consor-
tium, giving few, if any, states any advantage over
another when it comes to recruiting e-businesses.
Michigan Gov. John Engler supports the creation
of the consortium, but in order for it to formally
begin collecting taxes, the U.S. Congress must lift
a moratorium on internet sales tax collections.

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TEACH-INS
Continued from Page 1A
Teach-ins sprouted up across the
country as Columbia University, Michi-
gan State University, the University of
Chicago and the University of Pennsyl-
vania followed the University of Michi-
gan's lead.
Bryant said he believes the current
sentiment of students around the country
can't compare to the feelings held in
Mason Hall that night. He added that
today's teach-ins, though following the
same idea, don't hold the same power
because most students are not as affected.
"I think that if the war against terror-
ists widens and there is this serious loss
CREDIT CARDS
Continued from Page 1A

of American lives, and if this country
has to start the draft again, then I think
that-there will probably be teach-ins and
I think those teach-ins would have the
same effect or similar effect they had in
the 1960s," Bryant said.
Regardless of whether teach-ins today
have the same effect on those who
attend them as they did in the 60s,
teach-ins have again become a popular
forum of education and activism for
professors and students -- and not just
at the University.
After University of Wisconsin Prof.
Charles Cohen organized an impromptu
teach-in about Islam for Sept. 19, he
said he received a positive response
from the students who attended.

"I have received numerous emails
from people stating that they learned a
great deal," Cohen said. "I think it pre-
sented Islam in a far more complex way,
and thus helped people look beyond
stereotypes."
Other universities have held alterna-
tive forms of teach-ins and seminars.
On Sept. 24, the University of Iowa
held a series of small group discussions
coordinated by 50 professors from the
school.
"We wanted to allow students to discuss
issues they think are of concern in a small,
seminar-like setting," said University of
Iowa Associate Provost Steve Hoch.
The University of California at Los
Angeles chose to add last-minute series

of seminars available to undergraduate
students this semester. The seminars
include topics about national security,
war, America as a superpower and the
First Amendment.
Cohen said that a teach-in allowed
him to do things that a weekly class and
smaller discussions couldn't.
"The teach-in was an emergency,
one-time event in order to help people
begin to think about events. It was not
meant to probe deeply," he said. "The
teach-in was supposed to make people
feel less isolated, both by exposing them
to knowledge about the world and by
doing so in a large group. A class could
not have accomplished the communal
objectives."

For the past seven years, MBNA has paid the Uni-
versity for student phone numbers, addresses, and the
rights to use the University's logo on the cards, said
Jerry Sigler, associate executive director of the Uni-
versity Alumni Association.
"We receive a certain amount for every account that
is opened. It works out on average, over the past few
years, to be a little over a million a year," Sigler said.
The University uses the money in the athletic
department, a loan fund to assist students in paying off
credit card debt, several scholarships and alumni and
student associations, Sigler said.
"A lot of it is based on what are the needs of a pro-
gram this year based on what was done in the past,"
Sigler said.
Though the money paid to the University goes to
student related funding, the consequence of campus

card as responsibly or more responsibly than any of
our other customers around the country." he said.
"Some people would like you to think that students
cannot handle credit cards, our experience is quite the
opposite. Students who have MNBA cards handle
those cards responsibly."
According to NFCC statistics, students do have less
credit card debt than the average American household.
But taking into account that students generally have
little income, in many cases, close to 100 percent of
students' yearly income is owed to credit card compa-
nies. This percentage is much higher than the percent-
age of income going to credit card companies from
the average American.
Sigler said the fact that the overwhelming major-
ity of college students have credit cards led the
alumni association to the conclusion that students
were going to have a credit card regardless of
whether it was associated with the University.
Therefore, the University is working with MBNA

student.
"I don't use it, I just don't spend that much," said
LSA Junior Alexis Wesaw, who has had a credit card
for two years but rarely has a need to use it.
Donahue said MBNA is trying to educate students
by distributing literature, giving students access to
websites with financial planning, holding seminars
and providing a toll-free number to answer customer
questions. In addition to this, every student who is
approved receives a welcome package with informa-
tion on how to properly maintain their new credit card.
"In general we work closely with MasterCard and
Visa to make sure that students have access to infor-
mation. We will provide any assistance that the Uni-
versity requests," Donahue said.
The University also offers financial assistance to
help students deal with problems they may encounter
with their student MBNA credit card.
"We've created a partnership that will help them
and an emergency student loan fund funded by


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